And the book reviews start coming in, cue instant panic…

It’s the moment I guess every author really dreads, or I do, anyway: when the first reviews of your new book start coming in.

Until that point, the only people who’ve read the manuscript that you’ve spent most of the previous year wrestling with are your agent and your editors – unless you’re one of those writers who shares your work with family and friends as you go along.

I’m not one of those, so the first inkling I ever have of whether my book’s going to appeal to anyone who wasn’t involved with publishing it is when someone at Avon Books’ PR company sends me a link to a review. Then I become overwhelmed with nausea and have to sit down for the next ten minutes until the panic starts to wear off. After that, I read the review, with bated breath and my fingers crossed.

That’s what I did first thing this morning, when I heard that not one, but two national newspapers had reviewed “Would Like to Meet” on the same day. Double the reviews caused double the nausea, followed by an extended period of sitting down and trying to get a grip.

Having sort-of done so, I read the first review, which was by Sara Lawrence at the Daily Mail. She really liked the book! (You can read the full review on my media page, or by following this link:

Then I opened today’s copy of the Sun. Would my luck hold out? I had yet another funny turn before I could face reading this next review, but again, Tania Hadley (the reviewer) liked the book. Cue one VERY happy writer. (For at least ten minutes, until the worrier part of me decided that something was bound to go horribly wrong very soon, since today had gone well so far. There’s no pleasing neurotics like me.)

Anyway, if you’d like to read the Sun review, there’s a scan of it below, and also on my media page.